U.S. Court Dismisses $655 Million Terrorism Judgment Against Palestinian Authority

The Jerusalem Post reports: A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday threw out a $655.5 million terrorism judgment from February 2015 against the Palestinian Authority, in a blow to efforts to hold it liable in American courts for attacks in Israel during the second intifada that killed 33 Americans.

The Second US Circuit Court of Appeals in New York ordered the case dismissed, saying that the American court system had no jurisdiction over the PA or its parent organization, the PLO. It wrote that a lower court judge had made a mistake in concluding otherwise and allowing a trial to even take place.

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The appealed judgment, handed down by a Manhattan jury in US Federal District Court in February 2015, was the biggest judgment ever against the PA in the US and one of the first major anti-terrorism rulings, along with the September 2014 decision against Amman-based Arab Bank for financing terrorism.

Shurat Hadin – Israel Law Center, which along with attorney Kent Yalowitz of law firm Arnold Porter, brought the case on behalf of the families of the second intifada victims, vowed to appeal the ruling to the US Supreme Court.